EHB Listening Sessions Hosted By HHS

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is hosting regional listening sessions regarding essential health benefits. You are invited to attend the sessions. HHS is committed to receiving broad public input on essential health benefits from all stakeholders. Senior HHS officials will be in attendance to listen to stakeholder feedback. Please see below for the table for further details.

The Affordable Care Act ensures Americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance. To achieve this goal, the law ensures plans offered in the new Affordable Insurance Exchanges offer a package of essential health benefits, which are to be defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The statute directs the Secretary to consider the scope of benefits provided under a typical employer plan in defining essential health benefits. To inform the Department, HHS received a survey of employer-sponsored coverage conducted by the Department of Labor as well as recommendations from the Institute of Medicine on the criteria and methods for defining and updating essential health benefits.

If you plan to attend the session, we ask that you consider these questions in preparing your comments:

In keeping with the title of the Institute of Medicine report “Essential Health Benefits—Balancing Coverage and Cost”, how can the Department best meet the dual goals of balancing the comprehensiveness of coverage included in essential health benefits and affordability?

How might the Department ensure that essential health benefits reflect an appropriate balance among the categories so that they are not unduly weighted toward any category?

What policy principles and criteria should be taken into account to prevent discrimination against individuals because of their age, disability status, or expected length of life as the Affordable Care Act requires?

What models should HHS consider in developing essential health benefits?

What criteria should be used to update essential health benefits over time and what should the process be for their modification?

To register for the event, please send an email with your name, organization, title, email address and phone number to the designated RSVP by the RSVP Due Date listed above. (NOTE: In some locations, RSVPs are needed for building security and will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis)

I love in southern Kentucky. The nearest event to me is in Atlanta — a five hour drive that would require me to stay in a hotel in Atlanta (not a particularly affordable option). Furthermore, the folks who are going to be in most need of these insurance policies — the rural poor who suffer from extraordinarily high rates of obesity, diabetes, drug abuse, nicotene addiction — are the ones least able to attend your boutique panels in Atlanta and Dallas and San Francisco. If you actually want to know what people need, you need to go them.